


Collecting Dust

by FuryFiction



Category: Toy Story 3 (2010), Toy Story Series (Movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Domestic Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-23
Updated: 2014-10-23
Packaged: 2018-02-19 15:47:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2394077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FuryFiction/pseuds/FuryFiction
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Woody had never expected to run into Andy again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Collecting Dust

Woody had never expected to run into Andy again. But of course, there were a lot of things he had never expected to happen.

Of course, every toy knows that children will inevitebly grow up -- and from then on it's an ongoing cycle of new kids and yard sales until eventually they wind up “accidentally” discarded in a dumpster somewhere.

So it wasn't _really_ a surprise when Woody and his friends woke up one morning in a cardboard box. They had seen it coming for years; Bonnie was almost done with college and the only reason she held onto them so long was out of sentimentality.

But they had never anticipated the possibility that they would be separated. The toys had always been together and even though some had been lost along the way, those who remained were still always _together_. 

Slinky and Rex were bought by a little boy who, despite his rough enthusiasm with playing, seemed nice in his own rambunctious way. Mr and Mrs Potato Head were taken together. Hamm found a home with an old lady in need of a piggy bank. And Jessie was adopted by a sweet little girl who Woody was certain would love her as much as Andy had. Buzz was the hardest to say goodbye to. Because then Woody knew he really was alone. All he could hope for then, as he sat alone in the empty box, was that his old companions would be taken care of properly, with the value and care they deserved.

The yard sale seemed to drag on forever and the longer it went on, the more depressed Woody became. Perhaps he was the lucky one and he would live on Bonnie's shelf for another few months until the next sale. That or he would be in the bottom of a garbage bag. That seemed more appropriate; what was the point of wasting your life away stuck on a shelf without your friends anyway?

He didn't expect anyone to reach into his box and begin rummaging around until he felt fingertips scraping against the material of his suit and slowly lifting him out. And it was strange, because, he could have _sworn_ he recognised the brown eyes that studied him with slight trepidation. He felt as if he had met this man who held him before. Almost in another life.

The stranger appeared to know Bonnie, though Woody had never seen them together before. Perhaps he was a boyfriend or a distant cousin he had never noticed. Either way, they knew each other and from the way he referred to her as "Bon-Bon" they were on good terms.

All sorts of thoughts ran through Woody's mind as he was placed into another box, this one smaller and darker and far more cramped than before. He wouldn't have minded as much if the others had been there. But they weren't. They were gone and he would probably never see them again.

He remembered the last thing Buzz had said before he had been taken - _'keep your head up, cowboy. You'll make it_.'

He hoped for his own sake that Buzz was right.

* * *

'Honey, I'm home!' Sid called down the hall as he nudged the front door open with his hip, stepping into the living room where he found his partner of three years snoozing on the couch nearby and their infant daughter in her playpen with her building blocks. He smirked, kicking off his shoes and toeing off his socks before setting the wrapped package down a moment to carry the box full of toys over to his daughter who squealed at the sight of her second daddy and reached out her hands to be lifted.

' _Yeah_ , Pumpkin,' Sid smiled and set the box in front of the pen, taking out a few of the dollies inside and lifting the infant with his spare arm, 'Papa got you some new toys. All for a bargain.'

The baby gurgled, taking one of the dolls in her chubby hand, beginning to chew on it.

'Time to wake Daddy, I think.' Sid took the little girl over to the man sleeping on the couch and gently placed her on Andy's back, 'wake up, sleepy head. Your hubby's home.'

Andy stirred, opening one eye and allowing his mouth to break out into a smile as his daughter crawled over to pat his hair, 'hey beautiful -- oh and you're here too Sid,' he giggled as his partner playfully slapped his backside, 'get anything good at the yard sale, babe?'

'Not much,' Sid wandered over to the box that he had wrapped in gift paper before he entered the house and brought it to the boy on the couch, 'just found this little morsel and thought you might like it.'

Andy cocked an eyebrow, shifting their daughter onto his lap so she could help him tear the paper off, 'oh Sid, you didn't need to actually  _buy_ me anything.'

 _Sid_ , was all Woody could process as he listened to the voices muffled outside the box, _why does that name seem familiar?_

'You know I love spoiling you,' Sid replied but his lips twitched anxiously in case Andy didn't like it, in case Andy decided he really didn't need that old cowboy doll anymore. Sid was unsure of what had drawn him to the toy but he recalled Andy mentioning several times that he used to own a Woody Pride, always spoke very fondly of it. So he had wondered...

'Bonnie okay?' Andy asked as he struggled slightly with the lid, expecting it to be something humorous like a huge, grotesquely fluffy pink rabbit or something.

'Yeah, seems so. She's graduating college soon.'

'That's great. She's a smart kid. Bound to go-'

Andy cut off as he pulled the lid off the box and spent the next few minutes just staring into it, his playful expression slowly morphing into something...well...quite different.

'Sid...' he said quietly, '...where...where did you even...?'

Sid shifted from one foot to another and from where he was, Woody could see something scrawled on his left ankle in permanent ink.

A word. A name in fact.

Oh. 

 _Oh_.

'Jesus Sid,' Andy felt like he hadn't held Woody in a thousand years and when he brought him close to his face, the sweet and stale scent of his childhood came flooding back to his senses and water spiralled into his eyes.

'Andy?' Sid edged himself onto the couch and Woody detected concern in his tone; he sidled up close to the other boy, who had the doll pressed up close to his face with his eyes squeezed shut and added in a softer voice, 'Cowboy? Are you okay?'

He only ever used that nickname when he was really worried. Or during sex. Either way, it let Andy know that he was anxious and he opened his eyes again, allowing two fat drops of water to spill down both cheeks.

'It can't be...it must...but it looks just like...' Andy burbled but there was no way it could be anyone else. He lifted the doll's leg with one trembling hand and saw, clear as day, those large block letters he used to label his toys with as a child imprinted on the cowboy boot.

**ANDY**

There was only one Woody Pride he knew and this was definitely him. 

Andy had talked about Woody on several occasions; sometimes unintentionally, other times when he was getting the baby over to sleep and he had run out of fairytales to spew. To this day Sid still felt his stomach turn at the mention of that forsaken cowboy doll but he tried to keep in mind what all those years of therapy were for; he had grown up in a broken home with an alcoholic father and this whole incident with the talking dolls had been a traumatic, psychological result of this; something he just made up in his morbid, twisted brain.

But he was over that now. It was just a cowboy doll. And it was obvious that Andy was attached to it.

'So, uh, I guess you like it then,' he rubbed the back of his head awkwardly before he was pulled forwards and his lips met that of the man below him, scattering kisses on every inch of his mouth until they were both panting and red in the face.

Everything was happening too quickly for Woody to comprehend. Andy was so... _different_ to how he used to be. He looked the same, more or less, but there was this air about him that brought about a signal of great change. He looked stronger, more independent, more...more like a man.

And that was difficult to swallow, that Andy was now a man. And despite the fact Woody had found him again, after all those years, there was still that danger of him becoming that discarded toy thrown into the bottom of a trash can again. 

He found himself being moved to the coffee table while Andy continued coating his partner's face with kisses, bringing their daughter up to kiss her also and it was all so _strange_ watching it happen; this family that Andy had created and evidently dedicated his life to. The life that once revolved around careless summer days spent running around in the yard with his favourite toys. 

 It wasn't about him anymore.

* * *

'I keep telling you Andy,' Sid scoffed after they had finally got their daughter down to sleep, 'I knew because I'm psychic and have inhuman mind reading abilities.'

It felt strangely nostalgic being placed on a shelf again. But it was different this time. Woody hadn't just been thrown into an extra space; he had been placed carefully in between a photoframe and an old rusting trophy Andy had got in college when he won the annual science fair. So he wasn't completely forgotten.

'Come on,' Andy poked him, 'tell me the truth; did my Mom drop a hint or something?'

'A psychic never reveals his secret.'

Woody observed the two from the shelf, at the harmonious love that passed between them and he realised he had never seen Andy so happy. All those birthdays, those new toys, he had never seen the boy smile as wide as he did than when he was in the arms of the man he called Sid; who couldn't _possibly_ be the same Sid from all those years ago. They had their daughter - Aela her name was, though Sid stubbornly called her Pumpkin because of an infamous Halloween incident that neither of them would forget anytime soon. He had a stable job, bills being paid on time and he and Sid were going to be married next summer.  

Andy didn't need Woody anymore. Yet he was there, watching him with the new love of his life, listening to their whispers and giggles and reflecting on all those times when he was Andy's only care, his idol and plaything, his confidant for all his hopes and fears.

Now he was merely a doll on a shelf collecting dust.

His only solace was that Andy had found happiness. All those times as a child when he fretted that he was unlovable, that no one would ever want him, that he was worthless had proven to be invalid.

He had Sid - and Sid intended to keep him; if that name ' **ANDY** ' tatooed on his ankle was anything to go by.

It was worth sitting there and collecting dust if he knew that Andy still had someone to look after him. Someone to love him, to kiss away his tears, to tell his deepest secrets and put a smile on his face.

Now that Woody thought about it, it wasn't such a bad thing at all.


End file.
